Loading....
Seeds To Save Lives From Starvation Caused By The Flood
I just thought to share this touching experience we had while on our mission trip this past weekend.
We had finished distributing emergency food, seeds, and tools
in a desperately poor community and returned to our vehicles.
We had bags of fruit that my mother and friend Nathan had planned to give to the children to satiate their hunger and put a smile on their faces.
Over a hundred children gathered around the bags of fruit, wanting to make a lunge for it but not wanting to get in trouble with their elders.
There was a BIG problem…
There wasn’t enough for all of them.
Even if there were, the need to store food would mean that any child who received it would keep coming back.
It seemed too risky, and we knew it could turn desperate and dangerous quickly.
So we decided to put the fruit back in the truck and, if possible, find another way to get it to the children later.
My mom couldn’t bear the sadness on the children’s faces.
She kept talking about it, and I said, “Okay, Mom, then let’s do it, let’s try.”
The scenes that followed next SHOCKED us all.
The children were frantically grabbing at the food, and everything got chaotic.
There were ten hands at once grabbing at the orange or mango in my mom’s hands.
Just like this, when I witnessed countless people suffer and die before my eyes, sadly including this beautiful man of God.
It's easy to judge from a first look…
But they were hungry, too… and this is how they have survived so far.
This was dangerous also, as the children were piled around a car, and trampled each other!
And if it wasn’t me with my driver… and someone who was reckless… then the truck could start driving, and injure a child: so this is why I said they risked their lives for an orange.
And, Nathan and I helped a young man that had fallen off a truck on the road and was covered in blood and gashes a day after this, due to a reckless driver. The children weren’t thinking of their safety as they were hungry.
It was all happening so fast, and my mom was seeing firsthand that the only way out of this situation wasn’t in handing things out…
But by helping the whole community get their basic needs met, we can prevent this from happening again. (This is why our initiatives are all about long-term solutions.)
So many children were disappointed that they didn’t get a piece of fruit...
Back at home, I almost have to bribe my children to eat their food.
Moments before I had stopped to ask a child why they were crying.
The translator was able to get the basic answer, which was that they were hungry and thirsty.
When I got back in the car, I thought about what I had just witnessed, and particularly, I saw the look on my mom’s face…
And I felt bad.
I felt like I had just exposed my 71-year-old mother to a reality she would never forget.
And that she wouldn’t be able to get these images out of her mind.
She would always wonder where these children were, how they were doing, and whether they were still alive.
This is the part that is hard to write about for me. The tears are welling up in my eyes as I write this… because this is the feeling I have felt for so long.
I have been visiting different communities throughout Africa since I was 17.
I’ve seen these scenes more times than I can count for over 20 years.
Now, for the first time, I saw my mom experience something that broke her. She had never seen anything like this firsthand.
The next day, I asked her about it, and she couldn’t hold back the tears.
She couldn’t get her words out.
I felt guilty as if I had ruined my mom’s life.
I long to bring happiness to my parents and take care of them as they approach their elderly years.
Why did I bring them here to sear an image in their minds they would never forget?
My mom repeated how she kept seeing the faces of her children and grandchildren in their thin, emaciated faces.
With tears streaming down her cheeks, she said…
“I thought there wasn’t a famine yet, and the floods washed away their crops, but there was still food and the famine hadn’t started.
They are already skin and bones, and if they don’t get food, they’re going to die.”
I captured this whole story, including my mom, dad, and I reflecting on everything in this heartbreaking video you can watch here.
Sadly, this isn’t hypothetical. It has happened many times over the past 10 years. I did an interview with a woman two days ago who witnessed her mother die of starvation.
She said something that rocked me “I keep thinking of what it would be like if you were here earlier, and that my mother could have been saved”.
Another woman told of losing her 14-year-old daughter, 3-year-old daughter, and husband all to starvation.
They were too malnourished, to fight any small infections.
I asked her how she was feeling about sharing this with me.
She said, with tears welling up in her eyes but with a stoic yet desperate look, “Why would I cry when there is no one to listen and help me?”
The bottom line is that these children and these mothers don’t have to suffer like this.
You and I can help them.
Together, we can transform their tears into laughter, their hunger into a full stomach, and their thirst into satiation.
But I need your help. I can’t do this without you.
We are at the tail end of this campaign to raise funds to meet these desperate needs to save thousands of children’s lives just like this.
So if you feel moved to give, please do so today so we can immediately deploy these life-saving funds.
We are so close to hitting our target, but we are not there yet.
Exceeding our target will only mean more lives saved and a deeper level of support for these famished communities.
Please know that every dollar goes directly to help these children by providing emergency relief and, most importantly, long-term farming initiatives.
None of your donations pay for administration or fundraising costs. And, my colleagues and I are doubling your donation by matching it: so every 1 dollar becomes 2 dollars.
Also, you are giving through a 501c3, so your donation is 100% tax deductible.
That is a big deal as here is how far your money will stretch:
For just $72, you can give a farmer a large bag of corn seeds weighing about 53 pounds.
This bag is divided into smaller bags and distributed to many farmers.
Also, with only $600, we can give 500 farmers seeds to grow 50,000 watermelons!
On average, one farmer represents ten family members. So that small investment is helping 5,000 people!
Watermelons are also used to sell as they have a market value of $3-5 dollars US per melon…
Allowing families to have income to send their children to school and even university.
With a $1,000 donation of corn seeds, we can help 2,700 farmers, which is helping 27,000 people in total!
A gift of $3,000 lets us send seeds for cowpeas to 1,500 farmers. That’s around 15,000 people helped with nutritious and healing food!
Cowpeas seeds are more expensive than corn seeds but are important for nutrition and their market value when it comes to families selling their produce.
We also give farmers and their families a variety of seeds to help them in various ways.
In addition, if we spend $3,600, we can buy 600 tools for 600 people, supporting 6,000 people!
So whether it's 5 dollars, 20 dollars, 50 dollars, 100 dollars, 500 dollars, or 1000 dollars or more... this saves lives.
Every contribution counts!
Your generosity is a lifeline for entire communities facing the devastating impact of the floods…
And especially the precious little children because they are the most vulnerable in such times.
Wherever you are right now, I hope you'll consider how you can further support this life-saving cause…
And I want to thank you for your commitment to making a difference in the lives of those who need it most.
Please share this with everyone you know…
Because when we come together and share this message, we can reach more people and make an even bigger difference.
Thank you for being a part of this life-saving mission.
Remember we have just a few days to hit our target, as we are on the tail end of the trip. We need your help urgently.